|
Factors Impacting Vinyl Removal, Part 2
Learning what vinyl film is, the impact that the environment and the surface finish has on vinyl are all factors that will help you deal with the ultimate need to remove vinyl graphics.
By Dennis Lasik
On to installation
The installation itself has the possibility of carrying forward tremendous impacts when the time comes for removal. Was the substrate clean, smooth, warm or cold and properly prepared to accept solvent or water based acrylic adhesives? Is the paint properly catalyzed and cured and how will you know? Did chance decide the substrate or the combination of layers will become incompatible and outgas the third time they see sunlight? Was it a wet installation and were "tack" products used to enhance adherence to allow for stretching around contours and complex curves?
Environmental impacts continue after installation with the added aging variables from outdoor and/or indoor exposure to all it encounters including pollution, pollen, airborne particulates, acid rain, sunlight, cold, heat...well, use your imagination. Your list will probably be longer than my wordy article.
After passing through all the traumas vinyl graphics experience while getting to and then doing their intended jobs, comes the actual removal process. Removals are typically based on time estimates after inspecting a single vehicle without full knowledge of whether all graphics came from the same source(s), were installed by the same crew(s), and were treated in the same manner (environmental factors, cleaning procedures, etc). Usually the crew removing was not involved with the installation. Users of our Vinyl-Off generally agree that 4 out of 5 jobs go as anticipated, with profit margins intact. But that fifth job is the problem. That can easily break down to twenty percent of any job. All the profits from the first eighty percent, and then some, can go out the window on the one that goes awry. Having something that smoothes that problem vinyl removal job is one of our chief objectives. If there is a constant in the problem removal job, it is the huge amount of time required. Callers tell us removing the vinyl without Vinyl Off was "impossible", "Coming off in fingernail-size pieces", "nothing moves it"; "I'm thinking about sand-blasting and repainting,"
We recently consulted with a customer whose vinyl removal job went smoothly when removing the sides and rear doors, but proved almost impossible on the horizontal surfaces. In this example the after installation environment including engine temperatures most likely contributed to the problem. Here was their 20%.
As vinyl ages, it becomes less flexible and even brittle. Our products revitalize the vinyl layer, and it becomes more elastic and weakens the adhesive layer so it lets go more easily. With a more elastic vinyl layer and a weaker adhesive layer, pulling allows the vinyl and adhesive to come off together. We get reports of up to 90% time improvement on these trouble jobs. We did a job during the development of Vinyl Off that took 56 labor hours to remove with heat alone and about two hours when using Vinyl Off. It was so fast the client didn't want to pay us the agreed to price for "the easy trucks".
About the paint
Paint is truly an issue yet it is seldom addressed by any company using adhesives. When it is talked about, only the immediate problem is addressed and that is only to stop the immediate cash out-flow. We receive calls everyday about removing vinyl from painted substrates. The objective of the crew involved is to remove the vinyl and leave behind a perfectly painted surface. Of course, if the painted surface wasn't primed, cured, or cleaned properly before installation then the results are probably far from the objective! As far as we know, no one in our industry, regardless of the method of removal, guarantees the paint through the process. And that is basically because no one company controls the whole process and therefore cannot evaluate in advance what the immediate results will be.
I've said this before but I think it is worth repeating. Whenever there's a real problem and the customer gets upset, it is whoever blinks first that gets blamed. Since there are so many points of failure, resolution climbs all the way back up the chronological ladder to the vinyl manufacturer and is left unresolved. Compensated perhaps but not resolved. Hopefully some of the facts in this article can assist in giving reasonable explanations to customers in these tough situations. Of course, try not to be the one who blinks!
Over the years, safe to use VINYL-OFF has been successfully used to remove vinyl from a variety of surfaces, under a variety of conditions. It has demonstrated its cost effectiveness relative to hand held open flame burners; electric and infrared heat sources; eraser-wheel device procedures; and popular aerosol treatments. At a cost of less than fifty cents per square foot including labor for a fast, clean and "green" removal. VINYL-OFF is hard to beat. In terms of efficiency, customer's who use VINYL-OFF, as part of their removal process, complete the job in fewer hours (not minutes) versus other removal processes.
Back to top
|
